EAST PALO ALTO -- A19-year-old man found shot to death inside a parked car Tuesday night has been identified by the San Mateo County Coroner's Office as Raymond Lewin-Phipps of Fremont.

Officers responded to the 2500 block of Emmett Way at about 10:10 p.m. after receiving an alert from the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter, according to police. When officers arrived they found Lewin-Phipps slumped over in the driver's seat of a parked car with a gunshot wound.

Menlo Park Fire District paramedics treated the teenager at the scene; he was then taken to a hospital, where he died.

A preliminary investigation is underway.

The shooting brings the total number of homicides in East Palo Alto this year to eight, including three in the past five weeks. The city had seven homicides last year, eight in 2011 and four in 2010.

Police Chief Ron Davis said he is concerned about the homicide rate this year, particularly because there's still more than four months left. Two spikes of violence earlier this year were attributed to local gangs.

Law enforcement efforts against crime and violence will be intensified in the coming months, Davis said in a phone interview Wednesday.

"The potential exists that there could be more violence, so we need to push back," Davis said. "It's our goal to finish the year without another homicide."

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Davis also said Lewin-Phipps is a former East Palo Alto resident and had recently moved back. An employee from the San Mateo County Coroner's Office said he was from Fremont.

Police are asking that anyone who witnessed the shooting or has any information about it contact Detective Tommy Phengsene at 650-798-5947 or contact the East Palo Alto Police Department by calling 650-321-1112, sending an anonymous email to epa@tipnow.org, sending an anonymous text to 650-409-6792 or by leaving an anonymous voice mail at 650-409-6792.